Let’s talk about car wrecks

Today I’m trying to gather information on car wrecks. I need it for a piece I’m trying to write. Maybe you’d like to help me.

If so, give me a few details on the worst wreck you were ever involved in. What was the cause? How about the result? When did it happen, and where? Were you at fault? If not, who was? Thanks for the help.’

45 Responses

The only car wreck I’ve been involved in happened when I was about 16. I was coming down a small hill, hit a patch of mud at the bottom that had washed across the road, and took off over the curb and into a field narrowly missing a ditch.

I’ve been driving a long time and had only a couple of wrecks.
The worst one was in 1996, right after my move from Houston to Denver. I was headed to Wyoming in my big, rear-wheeled Mercury and hit some black ice. I did 2 360 degree turns and slammed into a guard rail.
A few of the 18 wheelers stopped to see if I was OK. I guess those Texas plates were a hint that I was a flatlander who did not appreciate the danger of ice driving.

Car wrecks? The Swankienda was still in the construction stage, but getting close to the livable condition. A sunday morning in January, cold amd moist, heading back to Sugar Land……there’s a low spot at the Little Blanco and as I went thru the low spot, it was foggy and the road was slick. I forgot I had the cruise control on and it took over on the slick pavement. SWMBO was reading a book and was unaware of what was going on. The skid began to the left, I told SHMBO to hang on as we skidded off the road onto the grass. No sweat I thought, but where did that mailbox come from, sitting on that stout post, about 8″ in diameter? The post caught us behind my door and we rolled. Just on the side and then right over the roof and onto the right side. Gasp, we made it. I unbuckled my seat belt and fell on my head. Mt old jump wings were on my gimme cap and they punched a small hole in my scalp. I helped SWMBO get out of her belt. The truck was totaled……..Sunday morning, it took about 20 min. for someone to come by, they had a phone and called the Blanco EMT/FD. They came by, checked us out, patched my haid which was bleeding from my blood thinners. A wrecker came by, righted the truck and loaded it up on the hook. The DPS came by about an hour after the wrecker loaded it up. A month later I get a ticket in the mail with an eye witness report by the DPS trooper. I called Blanco and told them to check with the Blanco EMT/FD about the report, got a letter later telling to fuggiddaoudit. Done.

I’ve been in a number of small accidents, seen many bad ones, including some I witnessed as they happened. And somehow, I have avoided some that seem impossible to have avoided. The craziest situation ever was a Saturday morning, I was east bound on Long Point, an older lady, west bound, turned left right in front of me. This was in the middle of a block. I suggested we NOT pull our vehicles out of the way and that made a number of folks very unhappy. Two hours later when a policeman arrived, he asked me why we didn’t move our vehicles. I told him to speak to the lady first. She told him, “He seems like a real nice young man. I hate to see him get in trouble, but he was in the wrong. I turned on my left signal light before turning.” He came back shaking his head & said I wouldn’t have moved mine either. That evening my wife and I were just missed by a hit & run guy w/o lights on Loop 610. I chased him down, got plates numbers, stopped a cop who got him along with his load of dope. Then the next day. another known heroin user pulled out to cross Shepherd. He was leaving the Merchants Park bowling Lanes. I was about a car link away when he pulled out. Of course he had no insurance (or assets). The investigating officer knew about the two incidents from the day before. He wrote on my ticket. “The only way I could have avoided this accident was to have been somewhere else.”

I’ve been involved in 3 wrecks which could probably be called nothing more than fender benders. Two of them were in 1961 while living in Abilene, Texas. Both times drivers ran a stop sign and hit me on thru streets. The first one we were in a Falcon and resulted in a new left front fender. I was driving a bobtail delivery truck the second time, the lady hit the truck squarely on the right rear dual and nearly turned us over. I drove almost a block on the left tires with the right side of the truck about four feet off the ground. I’ve seen trick drivers do it since then. Somehow I missed all oncoming traffic and crossed both lanes before I managed to get the right side back on the ground. We crowhopped for about another 50 feet as the truck rocked back and forth. End result, my passenger co-worker wound up with a broken toe when the tool box on the floorboard between us buounced down on his tennis shoe. The lady was trapped in the car for a few minutes as the front end was jammed back about 6″ and crumpled both front doors. The police told her that if she hadn’t hit the rear dual but had gone under the truck she probably would have been killed.

Eight years ago the last fender bender was all my fault. Two vehicles were stopped at a stop sign as I came up behind them. There were being driven by a father and son. The father in the lead vehicle started, stopped and jumped out to come back to tell his son something. As both of them started, so did I and looked up just as the father stopped his son. I could not stop in time to avoid the start-stop action. My pick up needed a new bumper, grill, headlights, etc. The old pick-up I hit had a heavy duty bumper and had little damage. I was calling the police just as the father said, “No real damage, you fix yours, we’ll fix ours,” and they both sped off. Upon arriving the policeman said I had just hit an uninsured driver and rather than receiving the automatic ticket for no insurance they had fled the scene. It is a regular occurrence apparently.

I have driven over a million miles and thankfully have never had a serious accident. I’ve hit a few skunks, coyotes and unfortunately a few dogs, and narrowly missed hitting larger animals that could possibly wreck a vehicle (deer, antelope, cattle and horses). I guess I’m a good driver for which I am thankful. I think one factor is that I rarely become sleepy while driving which is often a cause for accidents.

Worst experience of my life. First on the scene of a head on collision in Ansbach, West Germany. Both cars doing right at about 80 mph each. Pieces of the cars were bouncing 100 meters down the road. Both drivers dead and me first to arrive. When I finally got to my friends home for dinner he described my palor as “death gray and wide eyed”. Saw a man’s head in the back seat and a steering wheel shaft through the other. Gave me a real appreciation for automobiles as being serious business not toys.

i’m a fairly old bean, but my “worst” car wreck was ~ 8 years ago when I was stopped at the light @ Main & Sunset in Houston. It was lightly raining and I was rear-ended in my 1980 Chevette by someone in a larger car. My car was pushed into the stopped car in front of me ~ 10 feet away. No one was hurt. The car in front and the Chevette’s front end had very minor damage, but the Chevette’s rear end and the other car’s front end were pretty badly damaged. The Chevette was driveable, but just barely. The Chevette was 22 years old and I had been thinking of trying to sell it, but figured that I would be lucky to get $200 for it. Luckily for me the other driver had insurance. The insurance adjuster seemed nervous and probably thought I would develop “whiplash” symptoms. He offered me $1,200 as a totaled value. He appeared surprised when I immediately said sure 😎 Worked out well for me.

My best wreck story was in ’75. I had just bought a new El Camino, LaGuna Sp?? front end,(Chevy). It was a demo with about 2000 miles on it, for $5000 cash, if I remember right.

I was approaching an intersection, with two lanes going each way. I had a green light and going about 40 mph. There was an 18 wheeler stopped at the light, on the lane closest to me on the cross streets. As I was going through the intersection, all of a sudden a car shot out from the other side of the 18 wheeler. I T-boned it right in the middle of it. It did several 360s’ and came to a stop. I was saying some pretty bad words to the effect I didn’t even have 500 miles on it and crashed, and how dumb the other gentlemen were.

I got out to assess the damage…..one broken head light and a little rub on the solid rubber bumper! The Laguna model had a shock absorbing front end (two actual shocks facing forward) and a solid rubber bumper….a $5 head light and a little rubbing compound and I was like new!! The other car was totaled.

This T-bone collision at 40 mph showed me that car makers COULD engineer better cars, although the Laguna front end was an option…most El Caminos’ didn’t have it. I was just lucky the demo I bought had one!!

–Which is an appropos place to make my astronomy report on the Immanent Astroid to any interested Porchistas:

Today was unexpectedly sunny, somewhat warmer than usual; but at sunset (about 5:15 pm) it started to cloud up.
The TV news had said to go outside with strong binoculars at about 7:30pm, look towards the east, and the astroid would be visible traveling fairly rapidly from south to north. It was about 40ºF. (about 4.5 celsius, which I had to look up) so I bundled up, but didn’t take a lawn chair or snacks– just binoculars hung around my neck.

I just went out and looked up and saw the dark sky covered with clouds, no need to even raise the binocs toward the east. Then came back in to put the kettle on for some tea. Husband watching TV with the cat, noticed the binoculars said, “Did you see it?” “No joy,” I said, “But this will make the people sitting on Leon Hale’s porch in Winedale happy that they didn’t miss anything spectacular.”

Was in a bad one about 10 years ago! My fault, rear ended a car that was stopped on I-25 in Denver one morning. Traffic was moving good for that time a day. I just left a crew I was superintendent of and was heading back to the office for a meeting. I was heading north bound and seen one of the company trucks heading south bound hauling material to my job. I noticed that traffic was slowing down real fast. so I changed lanes to my right. I maintained my speed then all of the sudden there was a stopped car in front of me. I mashed the brake peddle as hard as I could , and skidded quit a ways. I plowed into the rear end of the stopped car. I felt bad pain in my back and legs. I called 911 on my cell phone and it seemed like it took them 15 seconds to arrive. I was transported to the Hospital and They discovered I had a fractured spine. They needed to do surgery but discovered I had a fever and would not operate. I laid on my back for 6 days with a fractured spine until my temperature went down. I feel the hospital was waiting to see if the insurance would pay for the operation. Any way I was cited and paid a ticket. The party in the other car was not injured to my knowledge.My mind was on the truck, the job I just left and the meeting I was headed to. Not on driving. Just in a blink of an eye the accident happened. I had been in numerous defensive driving classes, from work and should of never let it happen. I have been driving at the time over 35 years and that was my first accident

When I was a college freshman in San Antonio, Nancy, one of my nervous dorm mates was learning to drive, and begged me one day to go with her as she drove her boyfriend’s Doug’s old clunker car (lent her for the day) to pick him up at the bank where he worked. Just for fun I (brunette) borrowed my room-mate’s platinum blonde wig; at t he time I was trying to learn to play the recorder, and had been practicing scales as we drove. (Nancy said this actually calmed her down, as I was paying no attention to her driving which was jerky as she had not mastered the clutch yet).
As we turned across traffic to enter the bank driveway, the motor died. Sitting in the passenger seat with my recorder, I looked towards oncoming traffic in our lane, and saw a speeding car (70 in a 35 mph zone) racing towards us. Nancy was hysterically trying and failing to restart the car. In an instant I knew we were going to be broadsided and I was going to die. Quite calmly, thought, “This is it. There are worse ways to go.” I shut my eyes and began the “Hail Mary”, Nancy still grinding the gears and starting to cry.

WHAM ! the car spun 360, but we were unharmed. The young guy (of course) had, as soon as he saw we were stalled, slammed the brakes and guided the car to hit the rear rather than the front of our car. I opened my eyes, surprized that we were unhurt. Nancy jumped out of the car, leaving the door open, and dashed into the bank to tell Doug his car was wrecked out front. I knew one should not leave the site of an accident, so I sat there tootling on my recorder as traffic stopped around the wrecked cars. After a bit, the young guy collected his wits and came shakily to my window and said “You all right?” I said, “Fine. You got insurance? ” He wobbled back to his car to get a pencil and paper.

‘Bout that time Nancy came running back with Doug, whose car was now wrecked. (He was a good sport about it) Nancy leaped into the driver’s seat, and Doug into the back seat while I quickly scrambled into the back seat and told Nancy to put on the wig. She was too much shattered to ask why but Doug got it right away.

When the other driver came back with his driver’s licence and a pencil, he found the blonde in the front seat with the recorder, and the brunette he assumed had been the one running back from the bank with a young banker in a suit (!) sitting in the back seat. (Later he might have wondered why this couple desperately ran from a nearby bank to leap into the wrecked car.)

When the police came they took Nancy’s info and I volunteered as witness.
It turned out OK, miraculously nobody was hurt. Doug had insurance and got more than his old junker was worth, which he put down on a new second-hand car in better condition. We were all (even the other driver) wearing seatbelts, although it was not yet the law. Normally I didn’t wear a seat belt, but I knew Nancy’s driving was problematic so that day I was careful to fasten it.

Doug and Nancy later married (I was witness at their wedding in front of a JP) and the last time we all met they say that racing back to the car they said they will never forget the image of me sitting in the passenger seat, playing the recorder in the middle of the wreck as if nothing was wrong.

Daughter had just received her engagement ring and met her Aggie boyfriend at his parents home in Houston for the weekend. Early Monday AM they were headed back to colleges. Housing addition had 4 way stop signs about every 4 blocks. He was stopped and she looked down for her shade glasses as they were headed East, then looked up just as she hit him. He said I suddenly was looking straight up at the car ceiling as the seat back broke. Totaled both cars. They’ve been married now for almost 20 years. He laughs as he says when he rushed back to see if she was OK she was crying and said, “Do you still want to marry me?”

I bought ten cars while she and her brothers were in college as they totaled about one a year. It doesn’t take a lot of damage to total a good utility used car. The positive? I didn’t have to worry about them driving clunkers that would give them trouble as the cars were never old enough to reach the clunker stage before being totaled.

3 Boys here. We have paid a fortune in insurance, deductables, & lawyer fees. Here in Houston there are two brothers by the name of Kubosh (sp?) who specialize in traffic tickets. Their staff knew my wife on sight and on the phone. When she called, they recognized her voice & usually something like this was overheard. “It’s that lady with 3 boys. Get me the family discount plan book.”
I put them in good cars because the danger of breakdowns in Houston. There is no doubt in my mind that high levels of testosterone impares reasoning. Two have been carjacked, one successfully. Neither event would have happened if they had listened to either parent.

Ralph, well only had the get the lawyer my son worked for to send a letter one time, but thankfully never had to go to court. I always bought good used basic transportation cars, no frills as the car probably wasn’t going to last very long, Old’s Cutlass, Ford Tempo, Chevy Cavalier, Dodge Coronet and Plymouth Valiant. I think I owned one or two of all the above. If it did last til graduation it would have been traded when whichever one driving it found employment.

About 4 years ago, I was driving back to the office after lunch and my co-worker/friend was with me. A guy ran a red light and T-boned my car on the passenger side. My friend was stuck in the car. Firefighters had to cut the door off to get her out. I had severe bruising and what I describe as burns from where my seat belt locked up against my collar bone. Even though I was belted in, my left arm struck the window (still bothers me to this day). Luckily, me and my friend walked away with only some sore muscles, scrapes and a few bruises. I am so grateful I had side airbags. They saved my friend’s life.

The first wreck I was ever in, I was a preschooler and my mother was driving a 1940 Buick, one of those built like a tank. We lived in South Houston then, and were going toward town on 8th Street. Grass was grown up along the road to nearly head height, and as we passed one of the side streets a woman came barreling out of it onto 8th street. Her front wheel went behind our front wheel and we both landed in the ditch. I think my mother suffered whiplash, she had problems with her neck after that. But other than that, no one was really hurt, and the cars were finally disentangled and fixed.
The second wreck was my fault, I was driving a Corvair and pulling onto Beechnut from the Meyerland parking lot,in 1968, and a Volkswagon had been hidden behind a small delivery truck for the whole blook, I pulled out into the street behind the delivery truck and hit the rear of the volkswagon, snapping it’s axle. I had a small dent in the front fender. No one was hurt then either.
The last time I had one,in 1974, my husband had just come in and announced we were moving to Colorado very soon. That had come out of the blue and turned out to be part of his plan to dissolve the marriage. At any rate, I had a dental appointment, and on the way there I ran a red light and was hit on the rear by a car coming down the cross street. My car was drivable as was the other fellow’s, so we exchanged insurance information and went on our ways. I knew before I left the house that day I had no business being behind the wheel of a car. Fortunately, I’ve not been in that position since, paying heed to what inner voice tells me, and avoiding the chance of another wreck.

If one has to drive on business year round in all conditions of visibily, what better than a car painted daffodil yellow? However, it was doomed in some way. The first fender bender was a rear-ending two days from new, when I was stopped at traffic lights and had been for at least a half minute. I think the other driver had not seen that model before and was too busy checking it out to notice that it was stationary. Later, doors on both sides were stove in on separate occasions while the car was in car-parks. The total death of that car came when it caught fire and was totalled, the episode I wrote about in the “hero” blog a short time ago.

Don’t feel bad. I do the same thing. For a while I worked as a professional proof-reader and copy editor (one of the natural evolutions of an English Teacher, the other being novelist). You can never have too many pair of eyes on a piece before it is published. The author is the worst proofreader of his own work; his brain tells his eye everything’s OK because it has been seduced by the Platonic Ideal of his own piece, which he mistakenly believes has reached the page in the perfect state it left his mind. Whoops ! You then see the error in print in front of God and everybody and you can’t undo it. Well, writing in public has to keep you humble when everybody points out your faults in public, like a MCarthy senate hearing.

Also, it is so much easier to proof something on real paper than on a computer screen. Something about the brain goes soggy composing on the computer screen that doesn’t happen when I have a trusty red or blue pencil twiddling in my hand, ready to pounce, aha!, on a misspelling or misplaced modifier. I never use spell-check; it’s a distraction and a crutch for somebody raised on ransacking a dictionary when you are in doubt about the same dumb words you have failed to remember after 60+ years. But since I broke my left elbow and the hand got weak, I find many times I am mispelling a word because one of my fingers failed to hit the key hard enough to register. Still, proofreading I think is as good as a crossword for keeping elderly brains nimble.

It is a little late in life for me to think of seduction without needing to lie down and rest, but if it is inevitable then I’ll willingly accept even being seduced by the Platonic ideal of my own piece. You have put my inefficient proof-reading into a new class.

RAVEN: -When I started working in my office 25 yrs ago…writing and proofing the Bulletin was my baby. The lady who trained me told me to proof the page from bottom to top, right to left, I’d find more errors using this method! It does make a difference. That way I’m not reading what I ‘think’ I should read. You are absolutely correct, we cannot have to many eyes on that work…and still a ‘boo-boo’ sneaks by now and then, grrrrr! In fact, if we ask PH Larry, I’m sure he can share a few funny Bulletin Bloopers with us. Now I need to write something about a car wreck, hmmmmmmm.

I was on my way to work one night, had stopped at a red light on the service road for 281 when a new Chevrolet pickup exited 281, blew the red light, hit a car going west, jumped the median and hit me broad side, pushed me into the pickup beside me. I was driving a Mazda pickup, and it tore the front end out from under the truck. I wasn’t hurt except for some bruises, gave my info to the police, got my son to come pick me up and went on to work.

An hour later I had lawyers calling me wanting to represent me. I told them I would handle it my self. Got a very decent settlement from the insurance company. About a week later I got a call from some joker saying he would be by in about an hour to pick me up. I asked him what he was talking about and he informed me that the lawyer had scheduled me for therapy. I told him that I had no intention of going to therapy and I had no deal with the ambulance chasers.

About a year later I was called to jury duty. The case was a civil suit, someone had run a red light and hit another car. They poled the jury pool and asked if anyone had ever been in an accident and had any thoughts about the incident. I stood up and related what had happened in my case, and that I had no use for ambulance chasing lawyers. I was out of the jury pool so fast it made my head spin.

I’ve bumped a fender or two, but I’ll tell about a wreck
that nearly happened. I was going home in my pickup.
A trash truck pulled up to the highway and stopped, and for reasons
I cannot remember, I stared at it for way too long.
When I looked back, there in front of me, just past the
crown of the hill was a van STOPPED on the road,
waiting to turn left, but not signalling,
though the brake lights were working.

I saw this was about to be a wreck,
so I hit the right barrow ditch, which happened to be pretty flat,
with wet grass as slick as snot.
I just kept sliding on that green grass, with my foot riding the brake,
and I kept going until I finally stopped.

I looked around. The van was gone. The cars coming from the other
way were going over the hill. I pulled back on the road
and went home.

Jim, the best wrecks I know of are those which should have been but for some reason were not. I had a 70 mustang which has to be one of the loosest rear end cars ever built. Too much power for too little weight I think.

Anyhow I was in a snow storm coming up the Caprock on Dicken’s hill on HWY 114 when the slush turned to ice with the sudden increase in elevation and colder temperature at the higher elevation. The rear end hit the ice and lost traction and I 360° a couple of times through oncoming traffic, etc.

I can still remember the wide eyes of a fellow who saw my car passing directly in front of him as the spin brought us face to face about 50 ft or so apart. How we missed I’ll never know. My car’s rear end continued its pivot out of his way like a toreador swinging a cape in a bull ring. Winding up in the ditch facing the wrong way, I spun a 180° on the snow and just got in line with the traffic but I was now going downhill instead of up. At the bottom of the hill I turned around and proceeded back up the hill again but knowing the ice was at the top it was at a much slower speed.

I was in the 11 th grade and two couples of us were going to Waco to attend a Rock and Roll Concert at the Heart of Texas Colosseum. All of the big stars were going to be there, Fats Domino, Little Richard and many more of their caliber. We were laughing and cutting up, I was driving my Dad’s 53 Ford. Someone stopped in front of me and I did not stop quick enough doing a small amount of damage to the right front fender. Dad had just given me a heifer to raise and in a quick decision I told him I would give the heifer back to take care of the damages. He took me up on it and I think he got the car fixed for $35.00. I also got the only traffic ticket that I have ever received for “Following Too Close”. I have been involved in a couple of small ones but losing that heifer sure made an impression.

Leon, Can’t say I’ve personally been involved in a car wreck but my mother was back in the early ’50’s. Right in the middle of the then-new Highland Village shoppin center on Westheimer. She was westbound and stopped at the signal light at Drexell when an unloaded readymix truck lost his brakes and rearended her car. Drove her into the parking area in front of the Highland Village State Bank (now long gone). Luckily, a teller saw the whole thing and witnessed on mom’s behalf. Car was totalled but only personal injury to her was whiplash. Happily, all was settled amicably out of court. The Lord was certainly with her. Could have been lethal.

This wasn’t a wreck, but a mishap that happened one evening when two of my Chronicle friends were taking me out to supper. It was about 1976, back when we didn’t have cell phones at the ready. My friend Van didn’t like to drive, so we were in his girlfriend’s old Buick. It was one of those hot, steamy nights in Houston and the AC was running full blast. I was in the passenger seat and Carmen was talking about what a dependable old car the Buick had been, but that she should probably think about trading it in when I smelled gas fumes coming through the AC vents. It got stronger and stronger and when we stopped at a red light, smoke began streaming from under the hood. Soon after that, the whole hood of the car was consumed in flames and we jumped out. I don’t remember much after that, except we all got out with our lives and the car was a total loss. I don’t remember if a fire truck ever came, and I don’t even remember now if we ever ate supper.

I have a recurring dream. I am on the top level of a freeway interchange and crash through the rail. As I am floating like Thelma and Louise, I reach over and take my wife’s and and tell her that I am sorry and that I love her. Then I wake up.

Hank, I have a similar recurring dream, only mine is more exact in location and I don’t think to tell anyone anything. In my dream, I am heading west on Hwy 225 approaching Loop 610 northbound towards the Ship Channel bridge. At the highest point of the ramp to 610, my car simply sails through the guardrail. I wake up just then with my heart pounding but no idea how it ends. I think of that dream every single time I make that drive. I’ve always said I believe I will die in a motor vehicle related incident because this dream just seems to be an omen for that happening.

Coming up on my 50th anniversary of having a Texas drivers license and managed to have had only one accident in all that time. Was entering the on ramp on 59N around Chimney Rock and someone cut in front of me from the right and then slammed on his breaks causing me to rear end him. Happened so quickly I didn’t even have time to hit my brakes. He was driving an old Jeep SUV with no rear bumper so my front end just slid under the rear of the old Jeep and caused about $3000 worth of damage to my Honda Accord. Got a call from his insurance company telling me that I was going to have to pay for his new rear bumper, until I told them that their customer was defrauding them because he never had a rear bumper to start with. Never heard from them again.

We were comming down a steep mountain on a highway just east of Santa Fe, NM. The road was w/o pavement & covered with small loose gravel as it was under construction. There were no guard rails. The road was very narrow. Thankfully we were on the inside lane. Here comes an 18 wheel rig and he is in our lane. We ended up spinning around (at least two times). Somehow we missed the truck, didn’t hit the sheer rock on our right or go over the side. Don’t ask me how we made it w/o an accident. Niether my wife or I could tell you exactly what happened.

A friend just back from Nam bought a used VW. He was driving down a major LA freeway when a rag top with two great looking babes wearing skimpy bikins pulled along side. As would be expected he locked at the gals. They flirted with him and he returned the same. When he finally looked up he was about to go under an 18 wheeler. The traffic in his lane had grown to a crawl but he was going about 60. He was in the outside lane so he jumped onto the ice plant covered shoulder & hit the brakes. WRONG move. Those ice plants are similar to aloe vera. He shot forward like he was fired from a cannon & skidded what seemed like a mile before he got his VW under control and back onto the freeway.

No ones mentioned it, so I will….
How about that terrible wreck out in the Gulf of Mexico…..Wellll, it really wasn’t a wreck, more like a tumped over de luxe outhouse. Would a rose, by any other name, still smell as sweet?

I’ve been in some pretty bad ones and seen many worse ones. The worst was way back in 1979, headed to high school journalism state finals in Austin. The teacher was a 70 year old lady who, it quickly became apparent, should not be driving. I buckled up for the first time in my life and hoped for the best but did not expect to make it there that day. Major oversight by the school.

We – the teacher, two other students and I – had stopped for lunch at The Pecan Tree in Waller and were making our way through Hempstead when we missed a turn at the main intersection. We doubled back and were going through the intersection when a mid-60’s Mustang doing at least 60 MPH ran the light and T-Boned us at full speed right on my door. Ironic. I was the only one who saw it coming, remember thinking we were going to die and then thinking “At least we ate lunch.”

The impact knocked our Gran Torino across the intersection and into a nice, brand new black Pontiac Grand Prix stopped at the light. Totalled all three cars. Everyone was injured but me. The boy in the back seat was spurting blood from his forearm and the girl next to him was bleeding and screaming at the top of her lungs. We were all covered in glass. I remembered something I’d read about calming a panicked person and yelled at her to shut up. Shocked her big time, and it worked.

It was a surreal scene after that with rescue crews trying to get us out of the car and the guy in the Mustang casually checking the damage to his car, maybe in shock. The front end on his was pretty much gone and our car was pinched almost together at the middle. The rest of the day was spent at the hospital in Hempstead. I had a strange state trooper following me around after taking my statement and asking me over and over again if I was sure I was okay. He later told the parent who came to get us to keep an eye on me because, in his opinion, I should be dead.

The driver of our car didn’t make it. She died in the hospital after being transported back to Houston. I didn’t have any physical issues but later on had a dream about the impact and jumped in bed pretty violently, have been somewhat of a popper since then. The kids like it when I drift off during TV and start twitching around like a fish out of water.

Around a year later the guy who took over our journalism class after the wreck was followed home from a bar and shot to death in his driveway. Made the front page of the paper (can’t remember which one back then.) All the stories we were taught to pursue in class seemed to be coming straight from the class itself.

Worst wreck I ever saw was in South Texas not far from Corpus when a pickup full of people left the road and flipped several times, killing three people and landing upside down on top of a young boy. I never did learn whether he was alive or not. The aftermath of wrecks like those are always surreal. I have a lot of eerie scenes in my head from time spent travelling all over Texas. It’s hard to believe some people still won’t wear a seatbelt.

I had a fantastic 63 1/2 Galaxy 500 hardtop, RED. To get it inspected the first time it was required, I had to install seat belts. Wards ran a hot special $24.95 for two. They were out of red so I put in silver belts. $24.95 was a fortune for me at the time so I decided, if I had to pay so much for them, I would wear them. Have worn seat belts ever since & they saved me from serious injury a couple of times. The first time out with my wife, I had just picked up a new 442. I straped on the seatbelt & (she told me later) that scared her because she thought I might take off like an idiot. Had I done that, she would have demanded that I slow down. There likely would have been a second date.

Way back in 1959 at Ft. Bragg, sleepimg soundly in the barracks and the lights came on.
There was Lt. Wishart, our plat leader in summer class A’s at TWO in the morning, yelling at the top ofr his lungs “UP! UP! EVERY BODY UP!” we could see the lights of recon platoon, down the hall’ coming on to look at our end of the hall, to see what the heck was going on. Lt. Wishart then said “Sgt. Lassiter is laying in the morgue, 175# of DEAD MEAT! He and Sgt Conway were at the NCO’s club drinking and they left, intoxicated. Sgt Conway was driving at a high rate of speed and DROVE RIGHT INTO THE REAR END OF A DELIVERY TRUCK! The floor of the car was full of Sgt Lassiters blood because the impact forced his head thru the windshield”.That was when I learned that the Lt. was following the proscribed safety procedure, total shock for all. Sgt Conway was considered a dork, and Lassiter was the Sarge you could go to with your troubles. Strange how it works that way. Sgt Conway sort of faded away, one day he was in the barracks, really seeming not to care about what had happened and the next day he was gone. At least that’s the way I remember that night